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If you're using Puppy, which is a single user, root only distribution, you probably aren't too concerned about security, and there's a good chance if you want to set up a network, you don't want to bother with user accounts and passwords.
This is the easiest way to set up a "server" that any computer on your lan(Windows or Linux/Unix with Samba) can connect to and have full read/write access.
For example, our main computer is much newer than our other ones, so it is always the first one turned on, and we essentially use it as a server - we keep files on it, have the printer connected to it, and have the same email account set up on all the computers, using the mail directory on this one (it seems to be perfectly safe to do this - even using Thunderbird on several machines simultaneously ). Because I dual boot this computer, I need to have it set up so it looks identical on the network whether it is in Windows or in Puppy, so all the shortcuts on the other computers work. Here is what to do:
- Install the full samba on the "server" - the computer you want to be able to connect other computers to. There is a full samba dotpup, which is huge, or I think you can get by with muppy-smb and the samba petget package.
- Put something like this in your smb.conf (probably /etc/samba/smb.conf):
Code: Select all
;*******************section global*****************
[global]
public = Yes
;this is the name of the windows workgroup the computer should show up in, so should match whatever you use in any Windows computers
workgroup = HOOD
server string = Samba Server %v
security = share
log file = /var/log.%m
max log size = 50
server signing = No
paranoid server security = No
socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_SNDBUF=8192 SO_RCVBUF=8192
preferred master = No
domain master = No
dns proxy = No
ldap ssl = No
message command = /usr/local/bin/LinPopUp "%f" "%m" %s; rm %s
read only = No
case sensitive = No
;this line works for me, but I have commented it out as other people say it causes trouble with Windows XP clients.
;msdfs proxy = No
restrict anonymous = No
;this is the name of the computer on the network, so if you are dual-booting, it should match what your computer is called in Windows
netbios name = Green Room
max protocol = NT
;*******************section printers*****************
;I think Cups automatically shares printers with other PCs running CUPS, so this is mainly useful for Windows clients.
[printers]
browseable = yes
printable = yes
create mode = 0700
guest only = yes
use client driver = yes
path = /tmp
;*******************section green room*****************
[green room]
path = /mnt/home
guest ok = Yes
writeable = Yes
force user = root
;*******************section e*****************
[e]
path = /mnt/hdb5
guest ok = Yes
writeable = Yes
force user = root
;*******************section f*****************
[f]
path = /mnt/hdb6
guest ok = Yes
writeable = Yes
force user = root
;*******************section Puppy*****************
[Puppy]
path = /
guest ok = Yes
writeable = Yes
force user = root
For identification of the computer on the network, the two lines I commented in the global section (workgroup and netbios name) are important. Change them to something appropriate.
Printing
The printers section I used should allow any computer on the network (Windows or Linux) to see and print to any printers installed on this server, using drivers installed locally on the client computer - this is the way small Windows networks are normally set up. So if you install a printer on the server (which you are dual booting) and give it the same name as you use in windows, other machines should see it and print to it the same, whether the server is in Windows or in Puppy. This means that people should stop complaining because they can't print because you are in Linux (This works with Cups, I don't know if you can do it using XPDQ printing).
To make this work though, you need to open /etc/cups/mime.convs and uncomment this line near the end:
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#application/octet-stream application/vnd.cups-raw 0 -
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#application/octet-stream
Shared Folders
The sections after the printers section are for each individual folder that I want to share on my computer, and because I am dual booting, they match the shared drives and folders I have in Windows. They have the path to them in Puppy, and the name of them in the network, which matches the names they have on the network in Windows. (Just to confuse things, I happen to have my C: drive showing up as green room on the network, when the computer is also called Green Room). I also have the Puppy section to share the whole Puppy filesystem, and if Puppy is your only operating system, this may be the only shared folder you want. If you don't want to share the whole filesystem, you could share /root/my-documents, or whatever.
If you are dual-booting like me and trying to look like Windows, then you'll probably want to mount the partitions your shared folders are in at bootup - check out the "personal-start-reboot-scripts" dotpup.
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For the "client" computers, if they don't need to be "servers" themselves, then you can just install the samba petget package on them, and use LinNeighborhood to browse the network (It's not necessarily that intuitive, so Rarsa gave a fairly good explanation at http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=2163), or you can install Muppy-smb, which will automatically mount network shares. I believe Muppy-smb also has a gui for adding a shared folder on a server.
EDIT - starting with Puppy 4, LinNeighborhood will be replaced by pnethood, which is much easier, and can also be installed in older Puppies if you have gtkdialog3
EDIT - just thought I'd point out that some people are getting confused because I identify my computer on the network as "Green Room" (this is the netbios name), but I also share its "C: drive" as "Green Room" i.e. /mnt/home is shared as //Green Room//Green Room).
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If something doesn't work, please post and we'll try and sort you out. I had terrible trouble getting printing to work, so forget about all the other ways people say to do it, and stick to exactly what I've described, without any extra lines or anything, and see if that works.